Philadelphia Protestant Home

Title: Resident Spotlight: Meet Natalie
Time: 11 min 27 sec

Description:

Listen to Natalie's story about moving to PPH.

Transcript:

[Music] my name is Natalie Hardiman and I moved in to pph January the 12th it was what I thought in terms of people and I did the first two weeks I'd come back and I would think this is really a cute place I wonder how long I'm going to rent here and then little by little I found I would be out at the over Jersey or out with a friend all day and then I was able to say I'm ready to go home so it was here but that took a little while but it eventually happens where this is your comfort zone then you know so you know I'm very happy I'm gonna beginning I thought this would be a gift to my family you know that they would know that I was safe and that I was happy here and well taken care of but then I started to look at it in terms of being with people my own age which is something that I enjoy I think they're kind of what you would say like my people so it was a lot of prayers went before my decision as to when and I got what I thought it was the answer and then I knew not to say are you sure but it was time and then you take I guess like I thought well I'm gonna take the plunge I'm gonna just do it so it doesn't mean that you know that this is the place for you to be or the time to come in it won't be nervous or you don't have to make adjustments because you do why you trust for trusting in my message from God so first thing I signed up for was the law in her school kindergarten there's a wonderful teacher there she has 31 students and killed a party I don't know how she does it because she's just perfect at it and so we go every Monday we leave here at 8:30 and we're home by 12:30 Kathy massero asked me if I would consider doing a wise program so I said yes to that and I have some friends over in pathways that I visit try to visit on a weekly basis one lady I try to have dinner with once a week and she lives in pathways and then I try to meet her for lunch and stop in this year when I came in one of the things that I look forward to was that I could still do what I did before in pastoral care I could still visit I think that's important to give of yourself and to sit with people really I went to school for a year but what you do is listen so people want to tell their story and when I was home I did a little of that for the church but then you have to get in the car and you have to drive and if the weather's bad it's too cold you know and here I just have to walk down the hallway get on the elevator and go so I can do it much more easily than I could when I was living with my daughter my daughter lives in Cherry Hill New Jersey so I visit her at least once a week my son lives in Mount Laurel and I visit him once a week he invites me for dinner which is lovely and then I have a daughter that lives in Harley's Ville which is about an hour from here and when I go up there I stay for the weekend and we shop my apartment is perfect size I think so I picked out the kind of cabinets that I wanted I wanted to stainless steel refrigerants tove and microwave so I selected that I didn't one carpet so I got the vinyl flooring which looks like what it's really pretty and really easy to keep I recommend that to anybody of course you know good health I look forward to that meeting some more people making closer friends doing a little bit more of volunteer work as I do enjoy that thoroughly enjoy sitting outside but the weather has had been conducive to it you look forward to sitting out where the pond is and taking my book out there I like to read so to sit outside it's just beautiful out there and I don't have to leave the grounds you know my personal life my granddaughter is going to get married next May so I look forward to that and just being with my family is something that I look forward to all the time well you certainly have the freedom to do whatever you want there's a number of activities that you can go to they have so many different faith-based things that you can attend or participate if you want to I used to do devotions and so I talked with pastor Jack if he can't be here I would help him out with a devotion once in a while doing that and look forward to that so other than I can't think of anything more than that I would really like to become a little bit more fit I go down and I use the gym but not as regularly as I should but I do use it and I have something here that's just great it's called a body bar and I use that almost every day it's Maria Iseman if you hear me more here you can sit in your chair and watch television and do your exercises so I look forward to spending a little bit more time me buin trying to get it a little healthy know that you are going to be a little nervous about it changes not easy although changed in some ways gets easier as you get older if you look at the positive part of it not the negative part because I I couldn't even count how many changes I've had in my life you know from the time you're a child all the way up until 78 so but if you don't do anything you don't get anything if you don't take the plunge if you don't put yourself out there you're going to have exactly what you have now in your life and you think you need to say or you contended with that are you happy with that is this enough for you and then you have to be real honest with yourself and not because you're afraid to makes a change so you know this is enough because I do think that that happens to us as we get older we'll settle for the status quo rather than to take that kind of leap of faith and know that if you received what you feel is the answer to make the move then you just have to trust no guarantees what tomorrow is going to bring what you think the reason is when you come in that is will be part of your experience but you will have new experiences that you didn't expect I used to visit a resident here who I put in love and we were talking about when you get older no one really is interested in what you have to say I she said to me oh it gets worse and she I she said I go to my family's house and it's a holiday or some celebration and she said I sit in the corner and everybody talks about their job and their spouse and the kids and and she said and then basically somebody thinks we got a feed cranny and they bring her something to eat it's ray and and she said you know I really am not part of the conversation and that's not true here because you can sit and talk with people your own age you go out there you know experiencing the same things we then go to work because we stayed home with our kids and you know it was a whole different culture and so you're very comfortable with that you know there's a connection different from what you have with your family but you have it with the residents and you don't even have to know them very well you just start a conversation and you go I like her because we're on the same playing field I guess you know [Music]